Abundance and Food-Searching Intensity of Wood Mice (Apodemus sylvaticus) in Fragmented Forests

Tellería, José Luis; Santos, Tomás; Alcántara, Manuel

doi:10.2307/1381994

Cited by 59 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Others have reported high coastal densities of small mammals, including Peromyscus (McCabe and Cowan 1945;Thomas 1971;Herman 1979), Mus (Berry and Tricker 1969;Efford et al 1988;Rowe-Rowe and Crafford 1992) and shrews (Crocidura, Spencer-Booth 1963;Sorex, Stewart et al 1989), but ours is one of the first to link high coastal or insular densities to the consumption of marine prey. Population densities of small mammals are generally higher on islands than adjacent mainland sites (Gliwicz 1980;Adler and Levins 1994) and a negative relationship between density and area has been reported for both oceanic and freshwater islands as well as isolated habitat 'islands' on land (Smith and Vrieze 1979;Crowell 1983, Tellería et al 1991Nupp and Swihart 1996). These studies and our results contrast with general conclusions of reviews by Conner et al (2000) and Bowers and Matter ( 1997), who reported either a positive or no significant relationship between density and size of habitat patches for most mammals.…”

Section: Effects Of Marine Resources On Rodent Abundancecontrasting

confidence: 99%

Marine resources subsidize insular rodent populations in the Gulf of California, Mexico

2003

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Inputs of energy and nutrients from one ecosystem may subsidize consumers in adjacent ones, with significant consequences for local communities and food webs. We used stable isotope and faecal pellet analysis to quantify use of ocean-derived resources by small mammals on islands in the Gulf of California, Mexico. Rodents were live-trapped on grids originating near shore and extending 125-200 m inland to evaluate the extent to which rodents transport marine nutrients inland, and to determine whether marine foods subsidize island populations, permitting higher densities than would be possible based on terrestrial resources alone. Both faeces and stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes revealed that omnivorous mice (Peromyscus maniculatus) consume ocean-derived prey, including littoral and supralittoral invertebrates, and that their diets differed markedly from those of granivorous rodents (Chaetodipus rudinoris). On a small, seabird roosting island, marine prey were important in the diet of mice regardless of their proximity to shore, underscoring the pervasive influence of the ocean on small islands with relatively large coastline area. On a large island, however, consumption of marine foods declined sharply > or =50 m from shore, which suggests that mice are poor conduits of inland movement of energy and nutrients from the sea. Marine resources seemed to act as subsidies for omnivorous rodents: more P. maniculatus were captured near shore than farther inland and there was an inverse relationship between island area and rodent abundance, suggesting that small islands with large amounts of marine inputs support the highest population densities. Patterns of local and island-wide abundance of P. maniculatus are likely the result of several interacting factors, including frustrated dispersal, competition with C. rudinoris, and the absence of predators. We speculate, however, that the availability of marine resources allows P. maniculatus to reach high densities and to persist on small islands in the Gulf despite low and unpredictable terrestrial productivity. Spatial trophic subsidies thus provide a possible mechanistic explanation for the widely reported inverse relationship between population density and island or habitat area.

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Section: Effects Of Marine Resources On Rodent Abundancecontrasting

confidence: 99%

Marine resources subsidize insular rodent populations in the Gulf of California, Mexico

2003

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“…Bank vole, a typical forest-dwelling rodent, prefers deciduous plant species to conifers (Hjältén et al, 2004) and prefers forests with well-developed lower vegetation (Ecke et al, 2002;Miklós and Žiak, 2002). Wood mouse, on the other hand, is a habitat generalist which also uses open habitats (Hansson, 1978;Tattersall et al, 2001) and thrives in situations where forests meet open land (García et al, 1998;Geuse et al, 1985;Tellería et al, 1991). In fact, in the study by Boyard et al (2008), this rodent species was more abundant in the forest-pasture ecotone than inside forests or pastures in a bocage landscape and was highlighted as the major means of transfer of I. ricinus larvae from woodland to pasture.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Local habitat and landscape affect Ixodes ricinus tick abundances in forests on poor, sandy soils

Tack

Madder

Baeten

et al. 2012

Forest Ecology and Management

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A large fraction of the forests in northern Belgium consists of homogeneous pine stands on nutrientpoor and acid sandy soils. However, in common with many other parts of Europe, the current forest management aims at increasing the share of deciduous and mixed forests. This might create favourable habitats for the tick Ixodes ricinus, which is Europe's main vector of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato, the causative agent of Lyme borreliosis in humans. Considering the threat to human health, it is important to know which factors regulate tick abundance. The influence of local habitat and landscape variables on the abundance of I. ricinus ticks were studied by collecting questing larvae, nymphs, and adults at 176 locations in forests in the Campine region (northern Belgium). Both I. ricinus ticks and B. burgdorferi spirochetes occurred throughout the study area, which means that the entire region represents an area of risk for contracting Lyme borreliosis. At the forest stand level, the main tree species and the shrub cover significantly affected the abundance of all life stages of I. ricinus. The abundance was higher in oak stands compared to pine stands, and increased with increasing shrub cover. Additionally, at the landscape level, a positive effect was found for forest edge length but not for forest cover. These patterns may be explained by the habitat preferences of the tick's main hosts. Our results indicate that forest conversion might indeed create suitable habitats for ticks, which highlights the need for intensive information campaigns and effective tick control measures.

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“…In Europe, wood mice (Apodemus sylvaticus) which exploit resources within forests and agricultural lands (Montgomery and Gurnell 1985) attain higher numbers at forest edges than within forests or adjacent agricultural lands (Garcia et al 1998). At the landscape scale this translates to higher densities of mice in more highly fragmented landscapes (Geuse et al 1985;Telleria et al 1991). Habitat switching by P. maniculatus between knapweed and adjacent habitats could similarly result in higher mouse population densities at knapweed edges such as herbicide treatment boundaries and agricultural landscapes or at knapweed invasion fronts where high-density knapweed mixes with native habitats in a fine-grained matrix.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Non-target effects of an introduced biological control agent on deer mouse ecology

Pearson¹,

McKelvey²,

Ruggiero³

2000

Oecologia

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Release of exotic insects as biological control agents is a common approach to controlling exotic plants. Though controversy has ensued regarding the deleterious direct effects of biological control agents to non-target species, few have examined the indirect effects of a "well-behaved" biological control agent on native fauna. We studied a grassland in west-central Montana infested with spotted knapweed (Centaurea maculosa) to examine the effects of knapweed invasion and two gall flybiological control agents (Urophora affinis and U. quadrifasciata) on the native deer mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus). Stomach-content analysis revealed that Urophora were the primary food item in Peromyscus diets for most of the year and made up 84-86% of the winter diet. Stomach contents indicated that wild-caught mice consumed on average up to 247 Urophora larvae mouse day, while feeding trials revealed that deer mice could depredate nearly 5 times as many larvae under laboratory conditions. In feeding trials, deer mice selected knapweed seedheads with greater numbers of galls while avoiding uninfested seedheads. When Urophora larvae were present in knapweed seedheads, deer mice selected microhabitats with moderately high (31-45% cover) and high knapweed infestation (≥46% cover). After Urophora emerged and larvae were unavailable to Peromyscus, mice reversed habitat selection to favor sites dominated by native-prairie with low knapweed infestation (0-15%). Establishment of the biological control agent, Urophora spp., has altered deer mouse diets and habitat selection by effecting changes in foraging strategies. Deer mice and other predators may reduce Urophora populations below a threshold necessary to effectively control spotted knapweed.

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Abundance and Food-Searching Intensity of Wood Mice (Apodemus sylvaticus) in Fragmented Forests

Cited by 59 publications

References 21 publications

Marine resources subsidize insular rodent populations in the Gulf of California, Mexico

Marine resources subsidize insular rodent populations in the Gulf of California, Mexico

Local habitat and landscape affect Ixodes ricinus tick abundances in forests on poor, sandy soils

Non-target effects of an introduced biological control agent on deer mouse ecology

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